S01.E02: First Blood

[Cranberry]

Quote

The shocking aftermath of Noah's party sparks more questions than answers. Juliette's mother jumps to conclusions. A monster zeroes in on Cal's family.

 

[Cranberry]

Calliope's mom was nowhere near concerned enough that her daughter staked a presumably normal teenage girl through the heart, haha.

Gracie Dzienny really is having the time of her life as Elinor, huh? I like her power of suggestion that apparently just popped up out of nowhere. Her having a "black sheep" twin is interesting, too; no brother was mentioned in the short story. 

This episode had surprisingly little interaction between Juliette and Cal. It's clear that Juliette still has a thing for Cal even after the staking, but I'm not seeing Cal's attraction to Juliette yet. She still thinks the girl is a monster faking her humanity; she has zero reason to protect her at this point. I guess maybe we can chalk it up to some kind of legacy vampire pheromones.

The legacy vampire stuff is neat. They're born vampires, they have no issue with the sunlight, they can see themselves in mirrors, they apparently can't be staked, and their bite marks heal almost instantly. If only they all had Elinor's power, they wouldn't need to kill anyone at all. (Speaking of, Elinor moved so quickly she was a blur at one point -- I wonder if that's part of her unique skillset or if they can all do that.)

[ybrik]

Have watched the first two episodes so far and it isn’t bad. Definitely think GD as Elinor has been the standout so far but that might just because so far she has scenes with the most scenery to chew. I have liked both leads as their characters. However, my one complaint so far is Calliope’s actress doing her voiceovers. She seems to be forcing those. It doesn’t sound natural. 

[Paloma]

I enjoyed this episode at least as much as the first, maybe more because the music was not as nonstop or intrusive in this one. The scenes in the principal's office and with the mothers after were fun, but it seemed odd that such a big deal was being made about the girls going onto the roof. That hardly seems like serious misbehavior, especially compared with the more common drinking and drugging at parties.

21 hours ago, Cranberry said:

The legacy vampire stuff is neat. They're born vampires, they have no issue with the sunlight, they can see themselves in mirrors, they apparently can't be staked, and their bite marks heal almost instantly. If only they all had Elinor's power, they wouldn't need to kill anyone at all.

And apparently they can also go into a church with no ill effects (IIRC, Juliette's mother issued an after-church invitation to Cal's mother). I don't remember if run-of-the-mill vampires can enter a church, but it would seem like a no-no.

@Cranberry Wouldn't they still need to kill people to drink blood? Or are you thinking that with Elinor's mind control power, they could just get multiple people to let them take a pint or so at a time as often as needed, like the guy in the bathroom stall?

[Cranberry]

Yeah, exactly. They could feed, their bite marks would disappear, and they could mind-wipe the person afterward. They're not all like Elinor, though, so I do wonder how often they need to feed and how they manage it. Savannah isn't that big of a city, so the missing people would start to add up eventually.

[Chicago Redshirt]

On 6/11/2022 at 4:25 PM, Paloma said:

And apparently they can also go into a church with no ill effects (IIRC, Juliette's mother issued an after-church invitation to Cal's mother). I don't remember if run-of-the-mill vampires can enter a church, but it would seem like a no-no.

I read that not as Mama Fairmont was planning to go to church herself, but she knew that socially, it would both be expected that Talia and her family would and that any good family would. So the invite was for  post-church. 

I don't know anything about the lore of this particular short story, but it seems likely that vampires who are impervious to sunlight and staking aren't going to be bothered by consecrated ground or holy water. But then again, Juliette was hurt by silver, so she/they have one weakness.

On 6/10/2022 at 7:05 PM, Cranberry said:

Calliope's mom was nowhere near concerned enough that her daughter staked a presumably normal teenage girl through the heart, haha.

Gracie Dzienny really is having the time of her life as Elinor, huh? I like her power of suggestion that apparently just popped up out of nowhere. Her having a "black sheep" twin is interesting, too; no brother was mentioned in the short story. 

This episode had surprisingly little interaction between Juliette and Cal. It's clear that Juliette still has a thing for Cal even after the staking, but I'm not seeing Cal's attraction to Juliette yet. She still thinks the girl is a monster faking her humanity; she has zero reason to protect her at this point. I guess maybe we can chalk it up to some kind of legacy vampire pheromones.

The legacy vampire stuff is neat. They're born vampires, they have no issue with the sunlight, they can see themselves in mirrors, they apparently can't be staked, and their bite marks heal almost instantly. If only they all had Elinor's power, they wouldn't need to kill anyone at all. (Speaking of, Elinor moved so quickly she was a blur at one point -- I wonder if that's part of her unique skillset or if they can all do that.)

I assume Talia trusts Calliope at least somewhat to not have capped a normie accidentally. She did confirm that Calliope saw her fangs. 

Calliope IMO was confirmed to have some level of attraction to Juliette when she talked about how Juliette made her feel welcome on sight, and when her heart raced when she said she would have staked Juliette anyway if she didn't bite. 

Onto other subjects:

I wish that all the Fairmonts were smarter than they are/Juliette fessed up that she didn't commit her first kill. You don't have to be Sherlock Holmes with the clues the family has to know that Juliette didn't kill Ashley basically in public, extract her liver and then not get seen by anyone. Surely the newspapers or the kids at the party would have described what really happened as best they knew it: that the lights went out and suddenly Ashley was dead. And it also seems to me that if Juliette did kill Ashley, she's overdue for a lecture about safe killing. Murdering someone in a roomful of potential witnesses would be crazy.

Did I miss how the kids got caught on the roof/for being on the roof? It seemingly went from Juliette apologizing for paralyzing Calliope with her blood to them being in the principal's office the next day? 

I'm somewhat looking forward to them playing with the triple taboo of interracial/same-sex/vampire-vampire hunter. But at least with Calliope/Juliette the interracial thing doesn't seem to be a factor. I got a little bit more of that with Elinor/Apollo. 

I wonder if Theo is gay/ace, or just super-focused on his mission, because he seemed almost scornful that Apollo has a thing for the ladies.

My early predictions:

There'll be a family member taken out on both sides at some point to add drama to the Calliope/Juliette relationship. (Do they have a shipper name)? Probably both dads? Maybe Elinor/Apollo take each other out in a parallel to C/J?

At some point, the Fairmonts and the Burns families will realize that there is a mutual enemy of whatever actually killed Ashley and will team up.

Chekov's twin brother will pop up later this season and probably be part of the mutual enemy. 

[zenithwit]

On 6/11/2022 at 2:34 PM, Cranberry said:

Savannah isn't that big of a city, so the missing people would start to add up eventually.

It sounded like Juliette's father is the district attorney.  I'm sure that was quite an intentional and calculated move on the family's part to cover up their actions.  Also, they haven't really told us how frequently the vampires need to feed.  Maybe they are able to regulate themselves at some point and don't need to feed as often?

[Paloma]

14 hours ago, zenithwit said:

It sounded like Juliette's father is the district attorney.  I'm sure that was quite an intentional and calculated move on the family's part to cover up their actions. 

I  would agree that it was intentional/calculated, except that I think D.A.s are elected. I don't know how he could ensure that he got that position, but it certainly is helpful.

[Chicago Redshirt]

17 hours ago, Paloma said:

I  would agree that it was intentional/calculated, except that I think D.A.s are elected. I don't know how he could ensure that he got that position, but it certainly is helpful.

I think there may be some DAs who are appointed. But assuming it is elected, he could have ensured getting the position in much the same way real world politicians do: by spending a ton of money and campaigning hard. He has the presumed advantage of Margot's old-old-old money and power behind him and that's without using anything vampy to scare off any competition. Also, it's possible that he was in position to be DA before being turned.